I'll let you in on a little secret: The default watch face does not run on the main processor, but instead runs on a much lower power micro which doesn't have enough memory to run Connect IQ. It honestly doesn't have enough memory to hold the screen buffer; I work with some mad/crazy embedded hackers here at Garmin. All that for a second hand.
We face similar challenges to other smart watches when it comes to balancing functionality and power usage. I think all smart watches have been figuring out how to offer the customize-ability of custom watch faces without killing the battery for the use cases the devices is intended before. We're starting with a conservative approach, but it could evolve over time.
-Alpha Monkey
If so, sourcecode of stock watchface should be published! Even if it is written on assembler. Otherwise all this ConnectIQ watchfaces destined to be forever crippled and in disadvantage.
Upd: I don't actually believe sources might be published. Question is/are:
How ConnectIQ team see the future of watchfaces? Will issues from this topic be addressed and how?
The problem is that even if the source/assembler/whatever were published, it wouldn't matter. We (developers of ConnectIQ apps) are only able to write code that runs within the virtual machine, and that code runs on a processor that doesn't have the beans to run a VM.
The real question is, why do you care so much? What are you going to do with a watch face that can update every second, but causes the battery to run flat in 24 hours?
Travis, no, nobody speaks about watchface that causes the battery to run flat in 24 hours. It is about a stock watchface and plans to make ConnectIQ watchfaces equally powerful. Isn't it interesting to you if ConnectIQ team have any plans to do that, are there any ways to do that, or maybe it is technically impossible and will never be done.
I hope someday ConnectIQ watchfaces will be grant the privilege "to run on a much lower power micro". Is it technically possible?
Sorry to enter in such corner on the discussion... but imagining you need to pull out relevant information on the watch face, with relevance of seconds (stock faces as example - assuming is all in on Nasdaq) your phone would have a 100% more powerful data to display, play, sell, buy, within few centimeters of your watch! Lets be honest!
I would add that maybe that`s why all smart watches (Motorola, Samsung) in the market are not that kind of relevant, because if you need to pull out more than a line of information... your phone would do it better...
So you're wanting to do real-time stock trading on a fitness device? First off, watch faces don't have access to the communications module, so you couldn't get the stock data to display on a watch face anyway. If you had a watch face that was pulling stock data and updating the display every second, you'd eat through your battery pretty quickly.
My original topic was about preinstalled watchface, not a stock traiding ))) But anyway nothing can be said here, I only hope competent people (someone.ConnectIQ) would comment on this.
@SERGEYVDNKH: The answer to your question about the default watch faces vs. Connect IQ faces right now comes down to battery life, already mentioned earlier in the thread. It's possible as Connect IQ and hardware technology continue to improve and evolve that we'll be able to relax constraints on watch faces and allow more functionality. In the mean time, we've provided gesture support to allow one second updates on-demand for a short while, which preserves Garmin's goals of long battery life.
Remember that while Connect IQ is just getting started, Garmin is not new to this market--we have been producing wearable technology for over ten years. :) Hopefully, our experience gives you something to trust in. We read these forums, do our best to respond to requests, and seriously consider what people are interested in doing with our products. I can't make any promises about future capabilities, but you're not the first that's brought up this concern, so we'll definitely do what we can to address it. Please continue to submit your ideas for discussion!
So you're wanting to do real-time stock trading on a fitness device? First off, watch faces don't have access to the communications module, so you couldn't get the stock data to display on a watch face anyway. If you had a watch face that was pulling stock data and updating the display every second, you'd eat through your battery pretty quickly.
Hell yeah. He might as well have to deal with his papers on a 100mi ultra.
Hopefully more native watch faces/customisations can be added in future firmware updates. ConnectIQ watch faces are not for me since I need seconds on my watch. Not sure why, but to me it is just not a watch without the seconds. Just a personal thing probably.
